So much going on in life.  My calendar is constantly packed, the church calendar is even busier, and there is even more that I could be doing if I just wasn’t so tired and worn out.  But is busyness really the goal?  I sure hope not.  I think the goal is committed discipleship, yet at times that seems so easily lost.  All of our activity pushes us onward with direction-less frenzy until finally individuals and families are driven away from the church searching for sabbath.  Oh the irony.   [Read more →]

I am reading an interesting book called The Search to Belong by Joseph R. Myers.  His premise is that relationships happen in four spaces: public, social, personal, and intimate.  Recently the church has tended to emphasize public and intimate relationships.  The problem is we value intimate relationships over all else and value public relationships as our main or only introduction point.  If you’ve had a class in evangelism you have probably seen the image of concentric circles and been told it is our job to process people from the outer to the inner circle.  This simply doesn’t make since.  Do we really want all of our relationships to be intimate ones?  The answer is obviously no.  So how instead do we create healthy relationships on all levels? [Read more →]

Over the holiday weekend a friend’s dog got spooked by the fireworks and ran away. It was heart wrenching. Especially because it was such a great dog and such a close friend. All l I could think about was searching for the dog every moment I was outside. I have never been so vigilant, and because I can’t stop thinking about my new job, this vigilance soon became a metaphor for the work I am about to do. [Read more →]

The Church in my generation is having an identity crisis.  We aren’t sure who we are yet, and our wavering identity is causing us to lose people on the fringe and frustrate our elders.  Unfortunately, clarity may not come for months, years, or even another generation!  This lack of clarity is daunting, and for many, may be overwhelming enough to throw in the towel, but I am begging you don’t stop now!  Lack of clarity can be biblical and even holy.  It gives us opportunity to rely on God, to forge our relationships, and experience the labor pains necessary for new life.  Just ask the Israelites in the dessert, Joseph and Mary on the road to Bethlehem, the disciples before Pentecost, or the early church in ancient Rome. [Read more →]

I love/hate lock ins. Mostly I love them.

Lock Ins, at least in my experience of the protestant church world, are an opportunity for youth to gather in their church, along with other youth from their church and community, and run the place (in a safe, hospitable, and sometimes ridiculous way).

I say “run the place” because that’s what Lock Ins are all about: empowering youth to make their church and the ministry done at the church their own. [Read more →]

Weight Watchers: A church to me

After “Weighing In” at my Weight Watchers meeting last Tuesday, I sat in my normal seat, congratulating myself in my mind for my weight loss and pulled out my knitting to pass the time until our weekly meeting and weight loss pep-talk began. Before I could make my first stitch, Lauraine, an amazing 83 year old woman, turned and without hesitation or haughtiness, invited me into conversation. In the 10 minutes we spoke, she got to who I was and shared with me who she is authentically: a woman who loves her family, is brazen, funny, and  worried that she may die before her great grandson grows old enough to really know and remember her. Lauraine opened her heart to me in our one on one conversation and welcomed me into her life. Now, I am invested in her wellbeing, as well as her healthiness and weight loss, and I know that she is invested in me.  The best thing about this is, Lauraine is not unique to our little Weight Watchers gathering, every person in our time together authentically shares their lives, joys and suffering and desires to journey with me, whether it is my weight loss or the ways I want to support my family as we suffer through the pain of Alzheimer’s.

I believe the supportive and empathetic community I meet with is enabling me to live more fully into who I am called to be, a confident, healthy child of God. Weight Watchers, in my mind, is church to me… the Body of Christ, amazing community. Could it be that my weekly meetings at the YMCA with the secular Weight Watchers group is fulfilling a spiritual need I have for understanding relationship? Could it be that my social nature and need for community is being met in deep and personal ways by women and men of many ages, races, religions, and status in a place where we focus on the pounds we lose?  Could it be that Church happens out side of church buildings?  You’d better believe it…. [Read more →]